KU soars, UT stumbles in polls this week

Kansas’ victory over Texas on Saturday sent some major reverberations through the college basketball polls that were released Monday morning.

The Jayhawks were among the most notable rising teams in both the Associated Press media poll and the USA Today coaches’ poll. KU checked in at No. 5 in the media poll, up three from last week. The Jayhawks also were up two pots from last week in the coaches’ poll at sixth.

UT stumbled after losses last week to Iowa State and the Jayhawks. The Longhorns fell five places to 24th in the media poll and six in the coaches’ poll to 23rd.

In the Associated Press poll, Iowa State was 15th and Oklahoma was 28th.

The USA Today poll had the Cyclones at 17th, OU at 25th. Among those receiving votes was Kansas State, tied for 29th, and Baylor, tied for 34th.

The polls might be an indicator of how the Big 12 teams are perceived by the rest of the country. Despite having the nation’s strongest conference in virtually every matrix available, the Big 12 has only three teams in the AP top 25 and four in USA Today poll.

Something is wrong when that strength isn’t reflected more accurately.